Boy trudges through desert, bad guys all around—that basically sums it up. Well-intentioned but slow and somewhat boring, this movie details the odyssey of a 10-year-old Arab boy (Theeb) who has to trek through hostile lands by himself to return to his family. Movie critics tend to give high marks to authentic-feeling Middle Eastern cinema such as this one, but “authentic” usually means slow-paced and hard for Westerners to relate to. One reviewer called this movie “spellbinding;” unless the spell was to make me drowsy, I’m not sure why it was called that. The movie is convincing and somewhat interesting at times, with a couple of surprise turns, but not nearly as “spellbinding” as many reviews led me to believe. Also, the low-budget cinematography fails to truly capture the great scenery that existed.

Arabic with English subtitles